nepalese migrant workers & related issues

PUURBANNCHAAL UNNIVERRSITYY Stt. Xaviier’s CCollege

DDeparttment Of Soocial WWork Maitighhar, Kathmanndu

Jaya J

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Jung MAREGMI

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AHAT (GI, Niroj S

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MITTED TTO: ora DANNIELS Social Woork Practicum)

MITTED BBY: ordinator

THA ANDr), DikshaD Ranjan

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nts/ MSWW Ist Semesster)

F SUBMISSION:mber 14, 22009

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1

GENERAL BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................1

CAUSES OF MIGRATION ..........................................................................................................2

MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS ..............................................................................................3

SCENARIO OF NEPALESE MIGRANT WORKERS .............................................................3

NEPALESE WOMEN’E PARTICIPATION IN MIGRATION ..............................................4

SOCIAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE MIGRANT WORKERS ................................4

LAWS RELATED TO MIGRATION .........................................................................................5

SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION NEEDED ..........................................................................7

CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................7

RECOMMENDATIONS ...............................................................................................................8

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

“Migrant Workers: A Class Presentation” | Presented by: Group Four Students (MSW Ist Semester)

INTRODUCTION:

According to the “United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All

Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families” the term ‘migrant worker’ refers to a person

who is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a

national. Similarly, the encyclopedia, Microsoft Encarta defines a migrant worker as “A person who

moves from one place to another, often for employment or economic improvement”. And the

Encyclopedia Britannica defines a migrant worker as “A casual and unskilled workers who move

about systematically from one region to another offering their services on a temporary, usually on

the seasonal basis”. In general, a migrant worker can be defined as a person who moves across

political border, with the intention of settling for a temporary period of time for work.

There are more than 200 million estimated international migrants in the world today which

comprise 3.0% of the global population. Women account for 49.6 % of global migrants. In 2007,

remittance flows are estimated at US$ 337 billion worldwide, US$ 251 billion of which went to

developing countries. There are roughly 20 to 30 million unauthorized migrants worldwide,

comprising around 10 to 15% of the world's immigrant stock.

GENERAL BACKGROUND:

Migration of people from one place to another is a usual phenomenon since the beginning of

human civilization. The migration in the beginning was for the sake of food and exploring new

places for security purpose. But gradually the migration took the shape in diverse form and now has

become a very essential and common in each and every corner of the world. International labour

migration is one of the integral components while talking about international migration. Millions of

people from around the world (especially from the developing world) are leaving their usual place of

residence for seeking better employment opportunities and supply food for their dependents.

Globalization and integration of regional economics have added impetus to the growing mobility of

workers across borders. Poverty and the inability to earn enough or produce enough to support

oneself or a family are major reasons behind the movement of work seekers from one place to

another. These are not only characteristics of migration from poor to rich states; poverty also fuels

movement from one developing country to others where work prospects seem-at a distance, at least-

to be better. Labour migration has, in the 21st century, moved to the top of the policy agendas of

many countries - countries of origin, transit and destination. Most of the world's estimated 150

million migrants are people searching for improved economic opportunities abroad.

Nepal, clearly situated between two giant nations- China and India, is a small land-locked

country. It falls under the group of least developed twenty-nine countries. Here nearly 7.5% of the

"Migrant Workers: A Class Presentation” | Presented by: Group Four Students (MSW Ist Semester)

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total population is employed in industrial and service sector. In Nepal, the 60% of the people are still

illiterate. 82% of the total population is dependent on agriculture and more than 51% of the

population falls below the poverty line. Here, only 26% of workforce is wage earners; the vast

majority of 74% are self-employed. Of about 2.99 million wage earners, 2 million are in agricultural

sector. With an annual population growth rate of 2.36% and an estimated 3,00,000 new entrants join

the labour market each year, employment generation has significantly dropped in industrial sector,

while the trend has remained almost stagnant in service and other sectors. Therefore, a quite

considerable number of Nepali workers go abroad in the absence of fruitful employment within the

national boundary.

After Nepal-British/ India war of 1814-15 AD, formal entrance of Nepali citizens in foreign

employment started when 4,650 Nepalese were recruited in British-Gurkha brigade. And then, a

large number of Nepali workers had migrated to India for the employment in the tea-estates of

Darjeeling and wood-works of Aasam during the second-half of the 19th century.

CAUSES OF MIGRATION:

People migrate for various reasons. However, voluntarily a large number of people migrate

for works. The economic crisis has been one of the most appealing factors for migration. The poor

growth of economy and per-capita income of the people in the third world resulting in vast

unemployment and hardship of people is a major reason for migration to work. The present trend

shows that the migration is intensive phenomenon of mobility of people from poor to rich country,

rural and agricultural economy to industrial economy, conservative and despotic nations to

democratic nations and so on.

The trend is obvious in a country like Nepal, where a very huge number of youth population

has migrated to countries in Gulf and Asia-Pacific regions. The crisis of insurgency engulfing the

country in the last decade has aggravated the migration implausibly. The fight between the state and

Maoists rebels has created extreme difficulties in life in hill villages. The possibility of youths being

engaged in traditional agriculture has been largely diminished due to insurgency. And in recent years,

the demonstrations and markets shut-downs, almost on daily basis, called by various groups

throughout the nation, mostly in the Terai region, have motivated the locals to migrate to foreign

countries for safe lives and better opportunities. The reasons for migration for works are therefore

coveted.

Therefore, there are various reasons why people choose to migrate in or out of a country.

Sociologists have seen two major factors for migration and they are:


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1. Push factors: These factors are responsible for people to leave a particular place and migrate to

a new place. Some examples of such factors are lack of opportunities, lack of proper health

services, lack of quality education, prevalent low standard of living and persecution or hostility.

2. Pull factors: These factors are responsible for people to encourage them to migrate into a

particular new place. Some examples of such factors are availability of better work

opportunities, presence of quality education and superior health services, higher standard of

living and free from persecution.

MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS:

On December 18, 1990 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “International

Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their

Families” to safeguard the rights associated with the international migrants and their families. Every

year, the 18th of December is celebrated as “International Migrants Day” with the hope and promise

that the dignity and rights of international migrant workers and their families will be respected by

employers, governments and people all over the world. Migrant workers have same rights as all other

persons under the generally-accepted principles of human rights recognized by the United Nations

and the international community. Human rights are the basic, universal, inalienable and indivisible

rights inherent to every person to ensure him/her dignity as a human being.

There are many ways to categorize migrant workers’ rights. In order to provide an over-

arching general thematic organization of these rights, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and other

organizations working in the related field had developed the “20 Basic Rights of Migrant Workers”

which are universal, applicable to all migrant workers regardless of their VISA or employment

status. These rights do not rely on political or state boundaries.

SCENARIO OF NEPALESE MIGRANT WORKERS:

More than 650 Nepali youths leave each day this country in search of green pastures

elsewhere in the world. The figures started soaring up during the insurgency period in the late 90s,

when the country’s economy was in doldrums and employment generation was a meagre. During

those days foreign employment was a compulsion for many youths not only to escape from

insurgency but also to earn bread and butter for their families. An appeal of the foreign employment

still continues and the flow of Nepali migrant workers has been growing in an average rate of 20%

each month even after the successful peoples’ revolution -Jana Andolan-II in April 2006. Today, the

number of Nepali migrant workers is estimated to be about 2 million, mostly in Gulf countries and

Malaysia. Recognizing the importance of foreign employment and remittances, Nepal government


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has already opened 107 countries for the migrant workers. As a result, the number of Nepalese

migrant workers is on rise.

Overwhelmingly large numbers of the Nepalese migrant workers are unskilled labours; they

are hired in low paid manual jobs with little protection. However, they bring a substantial amount of

remittance to the country. Annually, Nepal receives more than Rs 100 billion (approx US$ 1.5

billion) as remittances from these migrants.

NEPALESE WOMEN’E PARTICIPATION IN MIGRATION:

Migration opens opportunities for women's greater independence, self-confidence and status.

Migrant remittances and investments, and newly acquired skills of returnees can potentially

contribute to poverty reduction, thereby attracting growing interest among governments and

development partners of labour migration as a means to help achieve the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs). In recent years, increasingly women have also started opting for foreign

employment. According to a study made public by United Nations Development Fund for Women

(UNIFEM) and Nepal Institute for Development Studies (NIDS), there are about 70,000 Nepali

women migrant workers working in various foreign labour markets. Of the total remittances that

Nepal receives annually from the Nepalese migrant workers, about 11% of that amount is the

contribution from women migrant workers.

SOCIAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE MIGRANT WORKERS:

There are numerous social issues associated with the Nepalese migrant workers. Like

poverty, HIV and AIDS, discrimination, gender-based violence, monetary problems, xenophobia,

low-wages pay rate, violation of human rights, social exclusion, irregular migration, forced labour,

trafficking in women/ girls, etc.

Many cases of intolerable sufferings of Nepalese migrant workers have been found abroad. It

is bitter reality that Nepalese workers are accepted in East and South East Asia as well as Gulf

countries only because they are cheap and they do whatever job they get. The large number among

them works illegally. Nepalese whether by training visa or by illegal measures, used to reach their

destination countries after paying considerably huge amount to the middle man or the so called

employment agencies. They are generally forced to work under ‘3-Ds’ (Dangerous, Difficulty and

Dirty) conditions.

Nepalese migrant workers are basically exploited in three ways. The first exploitation is from

the manpower agencies in Nepal, the second is from the manpower recruitment agency of labour

receiving country and the third way is the massive exploitation from the companies where they work.

Other forms of exploitation are not exposed properly but they are exploited in a different way from


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their home village to the country of destination. There is lack of government sincerity to identify the

major problems of migrant workers within the national boundary and in abroad. At the same time,

Government’s departments are also not established in all major labour receiving countries to monitor

the situation of labour migrants and help them in need.

Unequal wages is greatly prevailed between migrant workers and the nationals but the

migrant workers cannot speak about it due to the fear for losing their job. Nepalese workers are

compelled to sign in a fake agreement letter where all the fundamental rights of migrant workers are

prohibited where as the company has made another agreement paper only to show their government

with the fake details about the facilities provided to the migrant workers. In most of the workers’

agreement paper, their affiliation with the trade union is prohibited that has hindered to make them

organised about their rights. Police and Immigration Department also force the migrant workers to

give them money. Some of the companies have made 12 hours working agreement which is against

the international provision of minimum working hours.

The government system of taxation to the migrant workers is not fare. Foreign labour

migrants are working in a bonded condition. Their travel documents are seized by the employers

during their job placement, so they could not raise their voice against exploitation and compelled to

work even in low wages. Most of the migrant workers are not able to send their earnings safely.

Illegal migrant works are facing such problem in a massive way. Due the lack of security and proper

mechanism to send their money back they are not able to save or earn enough money in reality.

There is a lack of cooperation of Nepalese diplomatic mission in the labour receiving

country. Human mafia are active to exploit the honest labours but the government is not being

sincere to take appropriate step. Migrant workers are not organised and there is massive exploitation

and the migrant workers are working in a vulnerable condition. Migrant workers have a lack of

realistic information about the country of destination. So, they will go with a sweat dream but come

back with a sad story during their work place.

LAWS RELATED TO MIGRATION:

There are many national and international laws and provisions to deal with the migrant

workers and other migration related issues. Some of them directly relate the issues of migration and

those of migrant workers where as others try to relate the topics of migration and those of migrant

workers from the human rights point of view. Those different laws and provisions related to

migration and migrant workers can be briefed as follows:


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1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): Articles 2, 6, 7, 13, 14, 16(1), 23 of this

declaration try to safeguard various rights related to migration from two different perspectives,

i.e., rights to migrate and rights of migrants.

2. International Convent of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): Articles 2(1), 12, 13, 14, 16, 22,

23 and 25 of this convent are directly related to the various issues linked with migration and

migrant workers.

3. International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR): Articles 6 and 7 of

this provision are relevant to migration and other secondary issues.

4. Delegates on Exclusion of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: As a convention

specifically relating to women rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has guaranteed many rights for women migrants in

its articles 2(e), 9 and 11.

5. International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 97: This convention sets forth the

principle of equality of treatment to migrant workers with national of the country of residence,

but it applies only to the legal migrants. Interestingly, Nepal and the Gulf countries are yet to

ratify this convention.

6. ILO Convention 143: This convention obliges signatory states to respect the human rights of all

migrant workers irrespective of whether they are legal or illegal migrants. As a result of this

provision, only 18 nations have ratified this convention and none of the Asian countries have

ratified it.

7. The Constitution of Nepal 1991: Based on the articles 12(2), 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20; the

Constitution of Nepal 1991 tries to protect the rights related to migration and migrant workers.

8. Birth, Death and Other Vital Events Registration Act 2033 (1976): Under the section 2(a), the

incidents like birth, death, marriage and migration are defined as personal incidents requiring

registration. Section 2(b) defines migration as change of residence of person from one VDC or

municipality to other within Nepal for the period of more than six months. It also defines

migration as the movement of people from Nepal to other countries for the purpose of changing

the residence.

9. Foreign Employment Act (FEA) 2042 (1985): It is the only law which regulates the

engagement of the Nepalese people in employment in countries other than Nepal and India.

However, this act is not as efficient as it ought to be. Various provisions like Registration of

Companies, Second Amendment 2054 (1998) and Foreign Employment of this act are

important while talking about the issues related to migration and migrants. FEA (Second


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Amendment) 1998 has the provision that foreign employment should not be provided to the

women workers without permission from the Government of Nepal of guardian.

10. Civil Rights Act 2012: Section 6 of this act is also related for dealing with various issues of

migration and migrant workers.

Though there exists several national and international laws and provisions to maintain the

rights of the international migrant workers, most of them are not so much effective in Nepal. The

Government of Nepal has not yet given formal approval to ILO Convention 97 and 143, the most

comprehensive laws on migration and migrant workers. Therefore, in Nepal there is no specific law

related to the migrant labours and their rights.

SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION NEEDED:

Whenever there emerges a social problem in a society, the professional social workers and

social work students should take their initiatives to tackle that crisis. In case of the various issues

related to the migrant labours, their rights and the families, either the professional social workers or

social work students can take following intervention techniques to cop up with the problem:

1. Advocating the protection of the rights of migrants’ and the dignity under the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and the “International Convention on the Protection of the

Rights of All Migrant Workers and Member of Their Families”.

2. Giving regular pressure to the government to ratify the international laws in favour of migrant

labours and also demanding them to amend the national laws from time to time.

3. Providing proper counseling to the prospective migrant labours about their chosen destination

country, the work opportunities available there and other relevant information.

4. Making aware the prospective migrant labours of the Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

5. If possible, encouraging the prospective migrant labours not to leave country instead try to

initiate some creative works in their own country.

6. Helping the government authorities to keep an accurate record of the total number of migrant

labours.

CONCLUSION:

International labour migration mostly in Gulf States, Malaysia and other South East Asian

countries is a new phenomenon of migration in the Nepalese context and that only have about 34

years long history. Unexpectedly the foreign labour migration has developed in such a way, which

has shifted the agricultural based economy towards remittance based economy. The figure of

government authority says that there are more than 5,00,000 documented migrant workers in aboard

where as other estimated figure says that there are more than one million Nepali migrant workers


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including 70,000 female migrant workers. This figure does not include the migrated population

towards India. Remittance sent by the Nepali labour migrants is estimated 100 billion rupees each

year and women share 11% of the total remittance. Numbers of people going abroad for work have

been increased for the last few years, especially after the origination of armed conflict in Nepal.

Major concentration of Nepali migrant workers was in Gulf States for the very beginning but the

dynamics has been changed and people are migrating towards Malaysia since the past seven years

even though the number of people going to the Gulf States is still significant. A class division among

the labour migrants is also found to select the country of destination, i.e., poor people are to India,

Gulf States and Malaysia and rich people towards Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe.

There are various problems faced by the migrant workers both in home country and the

country of destination. Unless addressing the problems of migrant worker from the policy level,

solution is far behind. The Government of Nepal on the one hand is not capable enough for the

proper implementation of existed policy and on the other hand, there are several things to do for the

regulation and management of foreign labour migration. The situation of women migrant workers is

found more vulnerable as compared to men migrant workers. The existing law in itself found

discriminatory towards women and issues of women migrant workers. International provisions are

found very sound and applicable to protect the rights of migrant workers but governments in both

sending and receiving countries does not seem sincere to the domestication of the spirit of

international instruments, conference recommendations and plan of action. Manpower agencies are

almost unfair about their business dealing with the workers and their professionalism is questionable.

The role of trade union organizations is also found ineffective to address the issues of potential

labour migrants in home country as well as in the country of destination.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The key recommendations for the improvement of the lives of migrant labours and their

families can be summarized as follows:

1. As most of the laws and provisions are out of date or they fail to include the issues of migrant

workers and their rights they should be amended from time to time.

2. Promote labour market through the labour diplomacy.

3. In case of Nepal, the manpower companies are not regulated well, though the regulation of

manpower is clearly stressed in the Foreign Employment Act-2042. Therefore, concerned

authorities should take initiatives to regulate the manpower companies by following the current

laws and policies. Also the management systems of manpower agencies and welfare activities

should be improved to the best benefit of labour migrants.


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4. There is also the lack of demand verification system within the government system. Whether

the workers are demanded legally or not, whether they get salary mentioned in the agreement

paper or not. This should be properly scrutinized.

5. A follow-up activity from the government level is always lacking and the fixation of minimum

wages of Nepalese migrant workers is not properly implemented. Therefore, the follow-up

activities should be done on regular basis and the provisions of current laws should be

implemented properly.

6. The government should ratify the Migrants’ Rights, and other UN/ILO Conventions.

7. The receiving countries should ensure the minimum standards for health and occupational

safety for the migrant workers especially for women migrants, including safeguards against

mandatory testing of pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.

8. The respective government should conduct a strategic review on the role of migrants recruiting

agencies in the recruitment process and their impact on migrant worker’s rights; prosecute

abusive agencies and traffickers; and make the necessary regulatory and policy changes to

ensure the full protection of migrant workers in the deployment process.

9. In line with International Migration Commission, both the sending and receiving countries

government should create a “National Commission on Migration and Development” with

representation from the relevant ministries, intergovernmental and international organizations,

trade unions, migrants associations and NGO’s, with the specific responsibility for protecting

migrants during the whole of the migration process, including recruitment, monitoring, rights

violations, abuses and to facilitating migrants’ redress actions and reintegration.

10. There should be easy exchange of information on job opportunities, skill requirements,

employment practices and migrant workers’ rights in receiving countries including

demographic changes and the scope for using increased migration between migrants sending

and receiving countries and both the governments should impose ban on employment visa

trading by the unscrupulous recruiting agents or their sub-agents.

SAY NO! TO LABOR EXPORT POLICIES

MIGRANT WORKERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS, NOT COMMODITIES!

DOMESTIC WORK IS WORK, WOMEN’S WORK IS WORK!


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REFERENCES:

1. GEFONT; 1998; “GEFONT and the Migrant Workers”; General Federation of Nepalese Trade

Unions (GEOFONT), Kathmandu

2. Gurung, Ganesh; 2002; “Patterns in Foreign Employment and Vulnerability of Migrant Workers”;

Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS)

3. http://www.december18.net/ (Accessed on 14th August, 2009)

4. International Office for Migration (IOM); 2008; “World Migration 2008: Managing Labour

Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy”.

5. K.C. Bal Kumar et al; 1997; “Migration Situation in Nepal”; Central Department of Population

Studies (CDPS), Tribhuvan University (TU), Kathmandu, Nepal

6. K.C. Bal, Kumar; 2003; "Migration, Poverty and Development in Nepal"; ESCAP; Bangkok

7. Lim L.L., Uishi N.; “International Labour Migration of Asian Women: Distinctive Characteristics

and Policy Concerns”; International Labour Organisation (ILO)

8. Mishra K. D.; 2009; “Migration (Class Notes)”; St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu, Nepal

9. New Era; 1989; “Employment and Temporary Migration in Nepal: A review”

10. Parajuli, Manju, 13 April 2004, “Baideshik Rojgar Ma Mahila”/ “Women in Foreign Employment”;

Kantipur National Daily

11. Rimal, Bishnu; 2004; “Migrant Workers a Snap Shot”; GEOFONT

12. Seddon, Adhikari, Gurung; 2003; “The New Lahures”; Nepal Institute of Development Studies

(NIDS); Kathmandu, NEPAL

13. Thieme Susan et al; May 2005; “Addressing the Needs of Nepalese Migrant Workers in Nepal and

in Delhi, India”; Mountain Research and Development, Vol-25 No 2; Page number 109–114

14. UNIFEM, SAMANATA and Government of Nepal; 2002; “Policies, Service Mechanisms and

Issues of Nepali Migrant Women Workers: A Rapid Social Investigation”; United Nations

Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Kathmandu, Nepal

15. United Nations (UN); 1990; “International Convention on the Protection of the Right of the

Migrants Workers and Members of their Families”; United Nations

16. Yubaraj Sangroula; November 2002; “Analysis of Laws and Policies on Labor Migration and

Trafficking”; Center for Legal Research and Resource Development (CeLRRd); Kathmandu

School of Law (KSL), Bhaktapur, Nepal

nepalese migrant workers & related issues

Education

international labour organisation

prospective migrant labours

nepalese migrant workers

nepali migrant workers

international migrant workers

foreign labour migration

international labour migration

women migrant workers